Tsariki, Vasiliki. 2003. Fall, Repetition and Freedom revisited: 'Taking Notice' of religious themes in Kierkegaard's aesthetic writings with references to St. Augustine, Kant and Schelling. Doctoral thesis, Goldsmiths, University of London [Thesis]

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Abstract or Description

This thesis explores the interrelationship between the notions of the Fall, repetition and freedom with references to the writings of Kierkegaard and secondarily those of Kant, St. Augustine and Schelling. Kierkegaard's aesthetic texts and his concept of 'taking notice' are the indispensable background to the question of the different possible interpretations in regard of the relation between these three concepts. This primary interest is furthermore linked to an investigation of the emergence of different aspects of human singularity and of the divine that arguably emerge alongside each one of the different interpretations. The thesis consists of four chapters, the first and last on Kierkegaard, the second on St. Augustine and Kant and the third on Schelling. The first chapter investigates the place of the concept of anxiety in Kierkegaard's oeuvre, discussing at the same time his understanding of time, freedom and the fall through his appropriation of the story of Adam. Particular attention is paid to a discussion of the author's subsequent call to 'take notice' of the importance of the possibility of a distinction between a time before and a time after the Fall. This paves the ground for the second chapter, which is an investigation of St. Augustine's radical distinction between the time before and after the Fall and Kant's account of the Fall and the unfolding of history. The third chapter discusses the possibility of postulating some sort of continuity between the two modes of time mentioned above through an interpretation of Schelling's treatment of divine and human freedom, time, history and repetition. In the fourth chapter, Schelling's elaborations on time, freedom and contemporaneity provide the ground for a reinterpretation of Kierkegaard's insights on repetition, faith and contemporaneity. This discussion is primarily conducted through a revaluation of three biblical motifs, namely Job's ordeal, Abraham's sacrifice and the coming into existence of the God-man. These narratives are instrumental in allowing us to 'take notice' of the articulation between the notions of Freedom, repetition and the Fall emerging from Kierkegaard's aesthetic writings.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Identification Number (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.25602/GOLD.00028777
Keywords:	Fall, repetition, freedom, Kierkegaard, Kant, St. Augustine, Schelling, divine freedom, human freedom, time, history
Departments, Centres and Research Units:	History
Date:	2003
Item ID:	28777
Date Deposited:	12 Jun 2020 11:58
Last Modified:	08 Sep 2022 15:44
URI:	https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/28777

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